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The Pregnant Thoughts by Chijioke Ogbuike |
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| by Shahzia Batool Naqvi |
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This present article critiques the poetry in the book entitled: “Pregnant Thoughts” composed by Chijioke Ogbuike, popularly known as Don Ketchy, the musician, the poet with his own substantial share of emergence on the literary scene of Nigeria in the present times of the 21st century, and of course a voice from the country on the road of progress now after an untiring long struggle for Independence. It is a common though true assumption that the highlighted quality of the Nigerian poetry is in its being turbulent and protean in nature for a very solid reason of an uproarious past. The volume “Pregnant Thoughts” is a recount of the journey of the poet through the constellation of life along with all the untold dreams and unfulfilled wishes, as he himself said in the first poem, and all that which, being the son of his native soil, is going on in his mind.
In order to appreciate his poetry in the true essence, it would be good to have a cursory glance at the tradition of poetry composition in the history of the nation. Though the Nigerian poetry is a representation of one historical continuum, it can be calibrated into different thematic and technical realizations. The 1960s produced poems that were based on cultural nationalism and post-independence disillusionment; the poetry of the 1970s ruminated mostly on the Nigerian civil war; while the 1980s engendered poetry with ideological orientation. During the various phases, the emerging poets working on the canvas of history have been delineating the attendant disillusionment in the poetry, and poeticizing hope and imminent national rebirth. On the track of many other great writers of the times, Chijioke Ogbuike takes the task on his shoulders to creatively reconstruct the “lost” past of his people, and to restore that past without either glamorizing, romanticizing or sentimentalizing it. He keeps his history alive on his pulse, of which we can find the traces in the lines: “I am overcome with love for Swazi-this is my land How could this rhythm ever be out of demand Africa is my core… … We do not leave behind what is still relevant for the present So we still do the reed dance to declare innocence to a world that is oh so transient…” In contrast to the lines quoted above, he knows better when to get connected to the past for the purpose of restoration by learning based on the mistakes done in the past while when to forget about the past wrongs, and in this regard, he clearly means much to convey, as he says in these lines: “Healing starts by forgiving Not through the remembrance of the past If there’s anything to be learnt, it is that there is more To what lies ahead than looking back to errors that are vast…” - “Peace and Healing” The poem “Peace and Healing” is like a manifesto of a reasonable and sensible living from the poet to the readers. It is segmented into 13 stanzas, dealing with the separate themes e.g. peace, religion, tolerance, sense of future, the ideals of a communal living, forgiveness, life and love. For its inherent wisdom wrapped up in a lucid language makes it quite a readable work along with all the pleasant messages. Poetry has always been playing an effective role in providing the people with the necessary inspiration and deep insight. In an article, Dr. Jaya Lakshmi Rao writes that: “The language of poetry, for the African people, is a source of learning and becoming aware of their destiny that necessitates the knowledge of their past, present and the possible future.” Nigerian literature manifests the struggles of a people whose country is undergoing the painful process of transformation from colonial through neo-colonial to wholly self-determining nation. In the poem “Reclaiming Hope” the gory past of Africa under the shade of Colonialism reflects its essence, and the last stanza is fully understood in this context. He says: “This is the African continent and it has got content This is not someone else’s figment of imagination or just a mere sentiment Hope Is no dope If there is anything worth dying for It is a legacy that is worth living for…” These lines affirm a fresh and sound voice from the native soil of Africa. The work under-discussion is the part of the Nigerian literature manifesting the struggles of a people whose country has been undergoing the painful process of transformation from colonial through neo-colonial to wholly self-determining nation with a deep awareness of the situation, as the poet says: “That is worthy now to remember The children ask, is it so long ago that there was … Independence?” The lines quoted above are from the poem, “Reclaiming Hope” suggesting us to keep in mind that colonization was at its severe fever in Africa, and as history stands proof, it was highly exploited and savaged by the ambitious “white men”. Despite getting independence, the bitter memories reverberate again and again, the unforgettable colonial past resurrects all alive. In Ogbuike’s words indicating his vision of religion, “commonality of worship does not mean all is well”, and his keen observation studies the evils of fanaticism, ethnicity, and racialism in the so-called religions superficially structured. The concept can be discerned well in these lines: “I have no wish to go to Jerusalem Just so I could be classified as one of them … I would rather sit cross-legged and motionless if it could give me a society that would be sinless.” So it is a better solution in his opinion, “for a completely secure world, there must be no illusion Of what we believe Otherwise it may just turn out we Have just been deceived … Let’s leave these gods alone for they may not have the sights to see as we see.” While reading the poems it is noticed that the poet’s mind is like the water body without the water-gates and his thoughts flow like the river which has never experienced any ebb, and therein lies the reason of what he himself cannot understand whether he composes poems or writes prose, though the tendency is much towards poetry with all the balanced beats that he creates by the use of the double sounds within a single line and across the lines creating the rhythmic and rhyming impression. Ezenwa-Ohaeto observes in his article on Nigerian Pidgin Poetry writes that the pidgin language here acts as a bridge between the orality of verbal communication and the formality of the written word. This statement helps the reader explore the use of the language in pregnant thoughts scattered in these pages, which most often ignores the stringency of the grammar rules but focuses on the themes, symbols and motifs taken from the world of fiction, mythology, reality and folklore. In west Africa, English splits; Pidgin unites" (Okeke-Ezigbo, 34), this quote expands the understanding of the language used by the poet here carrying forward the tradition of the contemporaries and predecessors. The varieties of themes include the poem based on a news item of Mellissa allowing the poet to talk of the kind of love that he seeks for; hope, blessings, the social issues like unemployment, poverty, the haves and have-nots; the religious symbolic references of Abel and Cain, the mythical gods and priestesses, and it all goes beside the themes of imprisonment encoded in the cage and birds and flight symbols. The inherent truth, deep observation and intense human experience form the basis for a meaningful written expression in poetry. In the words of Ben Okri, “Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If reader only brings a narrow range of themselves to the book then they’ll only see their narrow range reflected in it.” The reading of the pregnant thoughts offered by Chijioke Ogbuike deserves the broad outlook of the readers into the themes emerging out of the soil so rich and fertile in the presentation of imagination and reality together in the meaningful expression by the poet himself, who asks us to realize, “It is a war we are on; it is a fight we have to finish In this turf, victory is only guaranteed when we fight from within.” |
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| 13-Oct-2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More by : Shahzia Batool Naqvi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Comments on this Article
thomas varghese 07/18/2014 05:07 AM
ramesh rai 02/04/2014 15:02 PM
chetna 10/25/2013 02:46 AM
literati 10/24/2013 16:15 PM
Chijioke Ogbuike 10/24/2013 15:02 PM
Syed Noorul Shams Zaidi 10/23/2013 23:48 PM
Jahan 10/22/2013 06:34 AM
Hyder Hyder 10/21/2013 01:36 AM
M.D Dinesh Nair 10/18/2013 09:51 AM
Paul Adrian Fried 10/15/2013 17:19 PM
Parul Rastogi 10/15/2013 09:07 AM
Irum 10/15/2013 08:42 AM
indira 10/15/2013 07:56 AM
R.K.Das 10/15/2013 01:44 AM
Tribhawan Kaul 10/14/2013 07:04 AM |
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